The use of a silver staining protocol provides a highly sensitive means of visualizing individual proteins of a complex mixture that have been separated by 2-dimensional electrophoresis. The procedure for silver staining described earlier (Z01 MH 00844-01 LBEB) uses a chemical development of a latent silver image to yield a visual display. Creating an image by physical development, however, uses seven-fold less silver, detects proteins with comparable sensitivity, is technically easier, and yields gels with lighter backgrounds